Solar advocates now plan to press lawmakers to override the veto when they reconvene on Friday.

Rep. Sara Gideon, D-Freeport, the assistant majority leader, said a request by the governor to cap at a very low level the price that homeowners receive for solar power they generate was a deal breaker.

“That would have tanked this market immediately,” she said.

The controversy centered on “net metering,” the state rule by which utility companies provide a one-to-one credit to home customers for solar power they generate and feed back into the grid. The credit is based on the retail price of power.

Net metering rules across the country are under fire by politicians and utility representatives, who say the price amounts to a subsidy that’s forced on all utility customers. In Maine, however, the bill was supported by Central Maine Power and Emera Maine.

According to Gideon, LePage asked for a price cap that would have started at 10 cents per kilowatt hour and declined in 18 months to the standard offer price for energy supply, which is around 6 cents. By comparison, the retail price, which includes energy and distribution charges, is around 12 cents in southern Maine.

Democrats and their allies, which include environmental groups and many small businesses, have been trying to gain support for a bill that would increase the use of solar energy in Maine, which lags other northeastern states in the amount of energy generated from the sun.

The measure was passed last week by the Legislature after changes were made to better insulate utility customers from rate increases. But the margin of support falls short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to overturn a veto by the governor, a frequent critic of Maine’s renewable energy policies.

The bill aims to add 196 megawatts of solar energy to the state’s energy portfolio over the next four years, down from the 248 megawatts contained in the original version. Maine has roughly 20 megawatts of installed solar energy today. It also would replace net metering for new solar customers with a complicated, alternative system involving hourly metering and the Public Utilities Commission entering into long-term contracts.

Supporters argue that the bill would provide a much-needed boost in Maine to an industry that is thriving elsewhere and stands to add as many as 650 jobs, while protecting 300 current jobs.

But Republican critics dismiss the bill as another policy that will force all electric ratepayers to help subsidize the solar energy systems of the wealthy households that can afford to install them. Throughout the debate, critics have portrayed the initiative as largely benefiting wealthier areas of southern Maine at the expense of ratepayers in poorer, more rural areas, where solar energy systems are less common.

Gideon said the governor asked for, and received, two earlier concessions to amend the bill. One would have opened up the PUC contract process to other renewable energy sources, not just solar. Another would have used the above-market value of renewable energy credits for so-called stranded costs, expenses that customers pay on their bills for past investments in power plants.

Clean energy advocates said they weren’t happy about either of those compromises, but went along with Gideon in hopes of persuading the governor to support the bill in some form. But the price cap request, they said, would have killed the existing solar industry.

“The governor’s final request,” said Vaughan Woodruff, owner of Insource Renewables in Pittsfield, “was a deal breaker because it sought to eliminate the solar industry that currently exists in Maine by undercutting the value that solar customers provide to the grid.”

Woodruff said he already has had to lay off two workers because of the uncertainty surrounding the bill.

He called on legislators to override the governor’s veto.

“This bill does exactly what many of them championed during their campaigns,” he said, “creating good-paying Maine jobs, reducing energy prices, and making Maine companies more competitive.”

Dylan Voorhees, clean energy director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, indicated that the outcome wasn’t surprising because LePage had threatened to veto the bill all along.

“This bill represents the very best of people working together to find solutions and common ground,” he said. “We don’t often see such diverse interests align to do something that benefits jobs, consumers and the environment.”

Here at MaineToday Media we value our readers and are committed to growing our community by encouraging you to add to the discussion.

To ensure conscientious dialogue we have implemented a strict no-bullying policy. To participate, you must follow our Terms of Use. Click here to flag and report a comment that violates our terms of use.

StraightTalker

The solar special interest groups donate millions of dollars to the Democrats, all so the ratepayers get screwed over by skyrocketing electricity rates. Way to go Gov. and thanks for watching out for the Maine people by protecting us from these rabid special interest group vultures seeking to destroy Maine’s economy all so they can rake in millions of dollars from us struggling ratepayers.

Let’s protect our remaining mills and say NO to rising electricity costs, we’ve lost too many good paying jobs!

Homeowner

Are you talking about the solar special interest groups that are donating to the republican leaders campaigns? The same republican leaders who changed their votes to against the solar bill after receiving donations from the out of state solar companies?? Yes lets make the out of state people decide whats best for us.

Homeowner

It is interesting to see that shortly after setting up his Western Maine Strong PAC, Rep. Nathan Wadsworth’s received a $1,000 donation from national leasing co…mpany Sunrun. Sunrun, SolarCity, and The Alliance for Solar Choice have been actively working behind the scenes to defeat LD 1649, a bill supported by Maine’s solar firms. What is also interesting is that just a few days after expressing support of LD 1649, Wadsworth did an about-face and later sponsored an amendment written by these out-of-state solar interests.

eleanorgay

So, keep paying big oil and polluting the air. Good call, Mr. LePage.

lotekguy

Mainers are being sold a bill of goods, most of it already ‘bought’ with YOUR tax dollars, the rest for which you’ll be billed in future electric rate hikes. So-called ‘alternative energy’ is a massive SCAM, promoted and funded almost entirely with tax dollars at the federal and state levels, without which they would never be viable. Wind, and especially solar, simply are not feasible when compared to conventional energy generation and distribution, and rely entirely on government subsidies, tax ‘incentives’, and concealing future above-market costs from the sheeple who support them. Most of whom, ironically, will never install a solar panel on their own roof, or erect a windmill in their back yard. If this bill passes, your electric bill–based on the price per kilowatt–will begin to rise incrementally, and several years from now you’ll discover–much too late–what the proponents of alternative energy have been concealing from you, as you’re forced to subsidize the ‘greenies’ charging their Priuses with their photovoltaic power at YOUR expense. If you pay taxes and monthly electric bills, you’d better hope the legislature fails to override the governor’s veto.

TruBluMainah

So let us instead keep paying the subsidies and tax credits to the fossil fuel companies to the tune of billions of dollars a year, and lining the pockets of the Koch brothers and their ilk, all the while sending our energy dollars to Pennsylvania and points south and west for the natural gas, polluting wells and ground water by perpetuating fracking, leveling mountains in West Virginia to remove the coal that lies underneath, and supporting unfriendly and outright belligerent foreign governments by purchasing their petroleum. Yup! That’s sound energy policy all right! end sarcasm

lotekguy

All energy is, and always has been, subsidized. But the subsidies for ‘alternatives’ are considerably higher than for the long established fossil fuels the planet is literally drowning in, including the plentiful, clean-burning natural gas we’re blessed with. America’s been called the ‘Saudi Arabia’ of natural gas. The earth’s abundant natural resources will continue to put downward pressure on the price of all energy sources, but wind and solar will never be competitive. What we want is cheap, convenient, and reliable energy, and nothing provides that better than what’s in the ground, much of which, incidentally, will be required to manufacture the millions of solar panels, wind turbines, towers, storage batteries….etc. the ‘greenies’ wrongly believe will ‘save the planet’. I’d rather “line the pockets of the Koch brothers”, who create thousands of ‘real’ jobs in competitive private sector markets than the pockets of crooked, power-hungry politicians in cahoots with greedy investors and phony ‘job creators’, naïve ‘advocates’, leftist NGO’s and their “ilk”, who all stand to profit at the expense of us captive, voiceless American taxpayers and utility ratepayers. No sarcasm, just facts.

Banshee 722

I don’t support anything that will make the electric bill go up. It’s ridiculous already.

mebiz

The same people who are whining about good paying jobs leaving Maine and/or jobs who will not come here due to high electric prices and over regulations want to pass solar power to make everyone’s electric bill higher yet. “When you keep doing the same things over and over and expect different results, it is the definition of insanity.” ~ Einstein. I think we would better off closing down the State Legislature, they continue to make Maine impoverished.